Bill Nighy: my man crush on Christopher Walken

The Brit actor admits to being starstruck by his co-star on the BBC2 film Turks and Caicos

Bill Nighy has admitted to having an intense man crush on fellow actor Christopher Walken, the Hollywood star known for a raft of unique performances in films ranging from The Deer Hunter to Pulp Fiction.

Speaking last night at the premiere of his latest TV project, the BBC2 film Turks and Caicos in which he reprises his role as suave British spy Johnny Worricker, Nighy waxed lyrical about his co-star.

“Christopher Walken? I’m obsessed,” revealed the British star of films including Love, Actually and About Time. “Getting to act with him was a serious thing for me.

“I absolutely adore him. His work is incredibly dear to me, [as is] the phenomenon of him and I was very keen to hold my end up [on the film] if you will pardon the expression.

“Christopher is everything I would like to be. Everything he does is poetic, every move, every breath he takes. In a man, men are often deadened by those versions of being a man. His version I sincerely dig. There’s something about him I find profoundly attractive and witty.”

Nighy admitted that he had declared his devotion to Walken on set, something he had only done once before, to rock star David Bowie.

“I said to Christopher, give me a minute and a half. There's only one person I have ever done that to and that was David Bowie. But [with Bowie] I saw his eyes glaze over because he had heard that for 40 f*****g years."

In the 90-minute film, written by playwright David Hare, Nighy's spy finds himself on the Caribbean island of Turks & Caicos and confronts a group of shady US businessmen.

Walken’s character appears to be part of the group, but turns out early on in the film to be a CIA agent.

Also starring are Winona Ryder and Helena Bonham Carter.

The film is the second in a trilogy, with the third, Salting the Battlefield, expected to air around the same time as Turks and Caicos in March. In it, Nighy's character is on the run in Europe.